Dan Hibiki
Dan Hibiki is a character from the Street Fighter series of fighting games. Dan is consistently portrayed as an arrogant, overconfident, yet a generally weak character in many of the games he is featured in (for that reason, considered a joke character). He is widely considered to be the comic relief of the series because of his over-the-top poses and battle cries. Story Dan's father, Go Hibiki, was a rival of Sagat. Go gouged out Sagat's eye, and Sagat unwillingly killed him in battle. Because of this and not knowing that he did not mean to do it, Dan sought revenge on Sagat, training under Gouken's tutelage to become a fighter, but was expelled from the dojo when his motivations were learned. Dan thus developed his own martial art style called Saikyo-ryuu, "The Strongest Style," vaguely based on his father's Muay Thai style and Gouken's Ansatsuken style. The result turned out to be a pretty weak technique, despite Dan's overconfidence on it. After the events of Street Fighter Alpha 3, Dan believed he had achieved his revenge by defeating Sagat (who had actually thrown the fight), and his motivation switched to promoting and expanding his Saikyo-ryuu school, even to the point of offering exercise videos and correspondence courses. He has seemingly had some limited success promoting Saikyo-style. In SFA3, he was Sakura Kasugano's supposed sensei, who followed him around in order to meet Ryu. He's also good friends with Blanka too, since Blanka saved Dan when he was young. As a parody After the release and success of Street Fighter II, rival video game company SNK created their own fighting game Art of Fighting. The principal character of this series, Ryo Sakazaki, not only bore a striking resemblance in appearance, fighting style, and name to Ryu, but had attire and hair of the same color as Ken. In humorous retaliation, Capcom included Dan as a secret character in Street Fighter Alpha. Dan's pink clothing is a spoof of Ryo's orange attire, while his head is a spoof of Robert Garcia's. His fireball is telling: instead of using both hands to unleash his Gadouken (as Ryu, Ken, and even Sakura do for the Hadoken), he propels it with one hand, like Ryo, Robert and Yuri do for the Kooh-ken (which Robert calls Ryuugeki-ken). Dan can also taunt infinitely like the Art of Fighting games, unlike his fellow Street Fighter characters. Also Dan's fighting style, the Saikyo-ryuu, is a parody of Kyokugen-ryuu, the fighting style used by Ryo and Robert. To further the parody, Saikyo-ryuu means "Strongest style" while Kyokugen-ryuu means "Extreme Style." In Street Fighter Alpha 2, Dan is Ken's secret challenger (reached by finishing several fights in a row with super combos) and they exchange dialog, one line of which is Ken asking Dan if he knows the "art of fighting." One of Dan's win quotes in Street Fighter Alpha 3 is "I hate the art of fighting, but I want to be the king of fighters!" This was a direct reference to Art of Fighting and The King of Fighters series by SNK. In Dan's ending in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Dan's sister appears to prevent him finishing off Cyber-Akuma saying "Don't you know who he is? He's our...", parodying the ending of the original Art of Fighting where Ryo was about to kill Mr. Karate before being told he is their father by Yuri (Dan's sister even looks like her). Dan's sister in this game is considered a non-canon, altought it's implied he actually has a sister, Ran Hibiki, a character from another Capcom's franchise, Rival Schools (however this was not confirmed by Capcom). In the SNK vs. Capcom series (more specifically in SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom), there is a running gag where Dan is often mistaken for Ryo or Robert, even by himself in a mirror match (Kasumi Todoh is one example: even after Dan tells her he is not Robert, she still does not believe him). In these games, Dan parodies even more of Ryo's attacks. He also mistook Mr. Karate for his father's ghost (though, in his ending in Neo Geo Pocket's SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium, he seems to acknowledge that Takuma and Go are different people). In Ryo's ending for Capcom vs. SNK 2, it is hinted that Dan came to the Sakazakis' Kyokugenryu Karate school to sign up. In Pocket Fighter, Dan can call on the ghost of his father, whose face resembles the same tengu mask as Mr. Karate. This is mirrored in Capcom's official artwork for Street Fighter Alpha; earlier works featured Dan's father as wearing a tengu mask while later ones show that the long nose was indeed a feature of Go Hibiki. All other instances of Go Hiibki's face are obscured, such as the image of young Sagat clutching Go's face. Appearance Dan has a similar outfit to Ryu and Ken, wearing a traditional Karate gi, but pink (a color combination of Ryu and Ken's gi). Dan also wears a black undershirt. His head and face closely resembles Robert from Art of Fighting. Though his fighting stance is similar to Ken and Ryu's, it is more "loose" and animated. Many of his mannerisms directly mirror those of Yuri Sakazaki. Gameplay Due to his generally weak and slow moves, Dan is widely regarded as a joke character, not to be used for any serious competition. He is also popular as a handicap to skilled players, as his weakness makes winning matches more difficult when against notably powerful characters such as Ryu, Ken and Charlie. As such, selecting Dan can, in itself, be seen as a taunt, since doing so implies high confidence that a player is superior in skill to his or her opponent. Strangely enough, all these weaknesses and the sheer comedy value have combined to make Dan a campy fan favorite of sorts. In some games, however, Dan's strength and ability is increased to give him a fighting chance on the level of most opponents, in such cases, his comedy value is in his over the top attitude. Despite still being a joke character in Street Fighter IV, Dan's skills are enough to match of higher tier characters (his Gadouken has increased range and his Koryuken is stronger, compared to the previous games). Special Attacks * Gadoken (Self-Taught Fist): Dan's projectile attack with comically short range. It's difficult to actually call this a projectile, it's more of an extension of Dan's fist than anything. But, it has a fast start up time and does surprisingly solid damage which make it useful in combos — as long as your enemy isn't too far away. Hard Punch version stays on screen for a slight bit longer than the Light counterpart, but both types do the same damage. * Koryuken: Like Ryu's Shoryuken except it doesn't have much range on it, making it difficult to combo with because all too often your opponent will be too far away and you'll miss. If a random flash appears, Dan is invulnerable for a short period of time. * Danku-Kyaku '''(Gale Kick)''': A flying kick which can be used in the air. The Hard Kick version is actually being pretty good because it hits 3 times. They work well when added on to the end of an air or ground combo. One of Dan's few good attacks. * Premium Signature: Dan signs his autograph and throws it at the other player. This is basically a taunt that happens to be a move, there's a horrible amount of start up time, and using the Hard Kick version makes it even worse. The autograph actually does damage if it hits the opponent. Assist Attacks Hyper Combos * Shinku Gadoken (Level 1): An "improved" version of Dan's regular projectile, as it travels a bit further but is still very slow. If all of the hits actually land, this does good damage, the problem is you're not going to land all of the hits unless your enemy is in the corner, and sometimes not even then. You can try and use it in combos, you might get lucky have it hit a couple of times. * Koryu-Rekka (Level 1): This is Dan's version of Ken's Shoryu-Reppa. It suffers from the same problem as Dan's regular Koryuken in that it has VERY little range and means you'll more than likely miss if you try to combo with it. * Hissho-Buraiken (Level 1): Dan does a series of melee attacks. This will only connect from close range, but like most of his other moves it has a lot of start up time making it really difficult to combo with. This attack is a standing parody of Ryo's flying Desperation move, the Ryuuko Ranbu. * Chouhatsu-Densetsu (Legendary Taunt) (Level 1): Dan does a series of taunts, and if you manage to get through all of these without getting nailed by an attack your opponent may have fallen asleep. This move is useless on a real battle, its only use is to taunt the opponent as it doesn't do any damage. Dan is completely vulnerable to attacks while he is doing his taunts, making this move even worse. * Otoko Michi (Way of the Man) (Level 3): Dan has a move which parodies Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu. The Otoko Michi is performed by doing the command for the Shun Goku Satsu in reverse. Depending on the game, the Otoko Michi can be as powerful as the Shun Goku Satsu, which can take off more than half of the opponent's lifebar, or it takes off a minimal amount of life from the opponent. It leaves Dan with only 1% of his own life. Due to its high costs and low speed, this move is considered highly reliable and only used when absolute victory is certain. In Marvel vs. Capcom 2, it is the strongest Hyper Combo in the game. Other Appearances In the unofficial events of Pocket Fighter, Dan's story begins with himself looking to expand his Saikyo-ryuu school, and subsequently chooses Sakura as his student. Upon meeting Sakura, he offers to teach her his style, and she accepts after Dan defeats her in a fight. Sakura masters the entire Saikyo-ryuu style, and chooses to forget the entire style three days after mastering it, humiliating Dan. Despite being the lowest tier amongst the main characters, Dan is still an above-average martial artist when compared to typical fighters. In the first volume of the manga Sakura Ganbaru!, Dan enters a street fighting competition and is shown doing rather well, only losing to Ken, who later went on to win the entire competition. Tag Partner Marvel Superheroes Vs. Street Fighter * Shuma-Gorath * Ken Masters Theme Song Artwork Dan.gif|''Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter. Dan2.gif|''Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter victory pose. Dan Hibiki (MvC2 Hyper combo).png|''Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes'' Hyper Combo pose. Sprites Trivia * In Dan's ending in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, he is threatening to kill a defeated Akuma when a brunette-ponytailed girl shows up and tells him to stop, revealing that Akuma is their...cut to "END". This references the ending of Art of Fighting, in which Yuri shows up to tell Ryo or Robert that Mr. Karate is really Takuma Sakazaki, their master and Ryo and Yuri's father. Dan was originally designed as a parody of that game's main characters. * Dan also makes a cameo in Sentinel's ending in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The guards began to capture people for their experiments, and Dan is the first victim. * Dan's taunts can fill the Hyper Meter. This makes Dan the only character in the Marvel vs. Capcom series who can fill his Hyper Meter by taunting. ** Curiosly, Thor has a "special taunt" where he starts taunting until the Hyper Meter is full. This may be a tribute to Dan. Also See Dan Hibiki's moves in Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes Category:Characters in Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes Category:Capcom Characters Category:Shoto Characters Category:Battery Characters Category:Characters in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter Category:Dan Category:Secret Characters es:Dan